Monday, February 24, 2014

Last week, entrepreneur Steve Perlman announced his new company named Artemis, and showed off its new pCell technology. This new technology is designed to deliver consistent, full-speed mobile data to every single mobile device at the same time no matter how many users are connected at the same time in any spot at the time.

The idea behind the technology is pretty amazing, but some people would say that it wouldn't work exactly as planned. Some arguments that have popped up are saying that it would be impossible to run the network at full capacity to an unlimited about of users because the signals would become too complicated. But, that is exactly what Artemis intends on doing.

The way it works is pretty interesting. pCell does not try to suppress any interference, but instead combines radio signals transmitted from different stations. In doing so, it creates a personalized wireless network for each individual mobile device.

Distributed Input-Output (a.k.a. DIDO) is another technology that Artemis is using. It's capacity has been proven to reach 10 times the limits given by Shannon-Hartley calculations, and has the potential to reach up too 1000 times the capacity. This is because instead of users sharing the same access point, they all get their own personal channel.

DIDO is a cloud-bases technology, and has been tested at every frequency between 1MHz to 1GHz. Indoor DIDO APs have a transmission range of up to a mile, and outdoor DIDO APs use Near-Vertical Incidence Skywave and have a coverage of up to 500 miles.

pCell works in all mobile bands and unlicensed spectrums like 900 MHz in the USA.

There are some huge benefits to pCell. It is compatible with every LTE device like the iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy, or any other LTE smartphone. Throughout all pCell coverage areas, these devices will be able to run at their full speed no matter what. Wireless carriers can set up pCell for way lower costs than traditional cellular, using base stations called pWave radios as opposed to building cell towers. It is currently being tested in San Francisco and will be ready for commercial deployment at the end of this year.